NHL ROUNDUP: Penguins blank Rangers for 8th win in a row

Saturday, March 16, 2013

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots to break a tie for Pittsburgh’s career shutout record with 23, and the Penguins beat the New York Rangers 3-0 on Saturday for their eighth straight victory.

Beau Bennett, Pascal Dupuis and Tyler Kennedy scored, and Dustin Jeffrey added two assists as the Penguins continued to dominate the reeling Rangers. Pittsburgh has won seven consecutive meetings with New York, which lost for the fourth time in its last five games.

Fleury broke a tie with Tom Barrasso for the club shutout record.

Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves for the Rangers, but New York failed to score for the third time this season. The Rangers, the best team in the Eastern Conference last spring, trail Pittsburgh by 14 points with six weeks left in the regular season.

BRUINS 4, CAPITALS 1BOSTON (AP) — Nathan Horton had a goal and two assists, Milan Lucic set up Boston’s first two scores on hustle plays behind the net and the Bruins beat Washington.

David Krejci added a goal and two assists, Rich Peverley had a power-play goal and Andrew Ference scored his first of the season on the eve of his 34th birthday.

Bruins backup goaltender Anton Khudobin made 32 saves, and Lucic had a career-high three assists.

Marcus Johansson was credited with Washington’s goal when the puck caromed into the net off Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk.

BLACKHAWKS 8, STARS 1DALLAS (AP) — Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa each scored twice in leading Chicago to a rout of Dallas.

Nick Leddy and Patrick Kane each had a goal and two assists, eight Blackhawks scored two or more points, and Chicago boosted its road record to 12-1-2 with a dominant win on the second stop of a four-game trip.

Corey Crawford made 18 saves for his 13th victory. Johnny Oduya and Duncan Keith had the Blackhawks’ other goals.

Defenseman Trevor Daley scored for the Stars, who have been outscored 16-3 in losing four straight (0-3-1). The Stars will play nine of 11 at home, where they have lost three in a row and are 2-5-1 in their last nine.

Patrick Wiercioch had a goal and assist, and Chris Phillips also scored for Ottawa, which won for only the second time in eight games (2-2-4). Turris added an assist, and Ben Bishop made 31 saves.

The Senators also extended their string of games decided by one goal to 11, which is one short of matching the NHL record set by Chicago during the 1997-98 season.

Drew Stafford scored twice, and Mike Weber also scored for Buffalo, 1-2-3 in its past six games.

Turris’ goal came on the power play, after Christian Ehrhoff was penalized for interference.

WILD 6, AVALANCHE 4DENVER (AP) — Devin Setoguchi scored twice and added the 100th assist of his NHL career to help Minnesota hold off slumping Colorado.

Ryan Suter started a four-goal scoring spree in the first period and the Wild went on to win for the fourth time in five games. Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak and Pierre-Marc Bouchard added goals for Minnesota, coming off a 5-3 home victory over Colorado on Thursday night.

John Mitchell, P.A. Parenteau, Gabriel Landeskog and Chuck Kobasew scored for the Avalanche.

ISLANDERS 4, PANTHERS 3SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Casey Cizikas broke a third-period tie, and the New York Islanders held on to beat Florida after blowing a three-goal lead in the final frame.

Kyle Okposo, Radek Martinek and Brad Boyes also scored, and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 27 shots for the Islanders (13-12-3), who are 5-1-1 in March. New York also jumped ahead of the rival New York Rangers into ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

T.J. Brennan, Marcel Goc and Mike Santorelli scored in a span of 1:43 of the third to tie the game. Scott Clemmensen made 21 saves, but Florida lost its sixth straight and for the ninth time in 10 games. This is the Panthers’ longest skid since they were 0-7-3 from March 19-April 8, 2011.

CANADIENS 2, DEVILS 1NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Big defenseman Jarred Tinordi, in his NHL debut, set up Tomas Plekanec’s tiebreaking goal at 6:49 of the third period, and Montreal extended its winning streak to five games with a victory over New Jersey.

Colby Armstrong also scored for Montreal, and Carey Price made 32 saves. The Canadiens moved into a tie with Pittsburgh for the most points in the Eastern Conference.

Armstrong snapped a 39-game goal drought, dating to February 2012, to give the Canadiens the lead at 8:08 of the first period.

Defenseman Peter Harrold scored for New Jersey, which lost for the second time in two nights (0-1-1).

Nate Thompson and Teddy Purcell also scored for the Lightning, who stopped a five-game losing streak at home. Tampa Bay is 3-8 in its last 11 games.

Eric Staal scored the only goal for the Hurricanes, who dropped to 3-7 against fellow Southeast Division games.

Tampa Bay, with Mathieu Garon starting in goal each time, has won all three games this season against the Hurricanes. The Lightning have beaten three Carolina goalies — Justin Peters, Cam Ward and Dan Ellis — in the process.

Staal ended Garon’s shutout bid during a breakaway at 6:21.

BLUE JACKETS 1, COYOTES 0COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 39 saves in regulation and overtime, then two more in the shootout to finish with his second NHL shutout — both coming in the last week — to lift surging Columbus over Phoenix.

Columbus, which played its fourth straight shootout game, extended its franchise-record point streak to 10 games (6-0-4).

Artem Anisimov and Mark Letestu scored in the shootout, making nice moves before firing shots past Mike Smith, who made 23 saves and was also credited with a shutout.

It was Smith’s fourth blanking of the season and his 23rd in the NHL.

The Blue Jackets improved to 6-0-4 in their last 10 games. Bobrovsky has stopped 239 of 245 shots in his past eight games.

Stewart, who assisted on the Blues’ other goal by Kris Russell, has seven goals and seven assists in his last seven games, including two-goal outings the previous two games. He took the lone shot of the extra period, faking Jonas Hiller with a forehand in front and then finding plenty of space with a backhander for his 14th goal of the season.

Saku Koivu scored on a first-period deflection for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks, who are 13-2-2 in their last 17 games to tie for the best run in franchise history.

Anaheim outshot St. Louis 28-20 in regulation.

JETS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 4, SO TORONTO (AP) — Zach Bogosian scored in the 10th round of the shootout to lift Winnipeg over Toronto, which lost its fifth straight.

Bogosian beat James Reimer, who replaced starter Ben Scrivens to start the third period, for Winnipeg’s second goal of the shootout after Blake Wheeler scored to open it.

Tyler Bozak had the lone shootout goal for Toronto.

Wheeler had two goals in regulation, and James Wright and Antti Miettinen also scored for Winnipeg, which earned its fifth win in six games and moved into first place in the Southeast Division.

The loss spoiled an impressive return by Joffrey Lupul, who had two goals in his first game since breaking a forearm at Pittsburgh on Jan. 23. Nikolai Kulemin also scored in regulation for the Maple Leafs.